Tyler Clementi's Parents Demand Apology from Anti-Gay Marriage Group

Jane and Joseph Clementi have demanded an apology from the National Organization for Marriage, a prominent anti-gay marriage group whose spokeswoman recently invoked their son Tyler's suicide during a speech at Iowa State University, according to the Huffington Post.

Speaking to a group of Catholic students in February, Jennifer Roback Morse, president of the National Organization for Marriage's Ruth Institute, encouraged the students to befriend and support gay youth to use sexual restraint so that LGBT youth have an alternative to the gay influences in their lives who may pressure them to become sexually active.

"That kid Tyler Clementi who killed himself — who threw himself off the George Washington Bridge," Morse said during her remarks, audio of which is available on the blog Equality Matters. "I mean, there was a much older man in the picture...And so I think friendship is what you have to offer. There are a lot of situations where people are doing something sexual that’s probably not the best thing for them and it would be better if they had somebody who'd be friends with them without coming on to them or without judging them."

The Clementis, who have supported anti-bullying legislation named in Tyler's memory and established a foundation that promotes LGBT acceptance, denounced Morse's comments as "ludicrous," for connecting their son's suicide to support from other members of the gay community.

"To exploit our late son's name to advance an anti-equality agenda is offensive and wrong," the Clementis said in a statement. "By doing so, National Organization for Marriage proves that not only is there no low they will not sink to, to advance their cruel agenda — but that neither they nor Ms. Morse have any grip on reality. The very idea that Tyler's tragedy happened because of too much support — instead of not enough — is ludicrous. Shame on them."

GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign and Equality Matters also called for an apology from NOM, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified as an "anti-gay group."

"This is among the more reprehensible tactics we've seen from NOM," GLAAD President Herndon Graddick said in a statement. "They're using Tyler's story to pit young people against their own peers."

Clementi, a Ridgewood native, committed suicide in September 2010 during his freshman year at Rutgers University after his roommate secretly recorded and broadcast his romantic encounter with another man in their dorm room.